Nevada legalizes male prostitutes, but will the women pay to play?

Nevada County has finally legalized male prostitutes – so now the only question remaining, especially with the approval arriving in the middle of a recession, is this: Will the phones be ringing off the hook, or will the silence be deafening?

A small brothel — and wannabe stud form — about 150 miles northwest of Las Vegas prompted this decision. They received final approval last week to employ guys for hire — guys who would be the first legal male prostitutes in the United States.

“We’ve had quite a few couples who want to add a man to a threesome and ladies who say to us, ‘When the hell are we going to get to hire a man?’” said Shady Lady co-owner Jim Davis, 78, whose wife, Bobbi, 55, is the madam.

In case it wasn’t clear, gay men are not the Shady Lady’s target market. “The minute a guy says I have an 8-inch penis, we tune them out,” says Bobbi Davis. “When they say that, they’re thinking just sex, but we’re talking about entertaining women. They’ve got to be able to laugh at a lady’s joke.” Think HBO’s Hung.

Davis is looking for straight guys to work for her, and though gay men will be allowed to show up as customers, it’s the sex workers’ final call if they want to sleep with a particular client. Also, Davis says that if the only customers to show up are gay men, they’ll shutter that side of their business.

(You may remember that Heidi Fleiss tried to open a similar operation in Nevada about five years ago, but her reputation preceded her, ironically, and she failed — and ended up opening a laundromat instead.)

Meanwhile, Hung notwithstanding, it remains to be seen whether women will pay for sex (or pay to have someone laugh at their jokes). Also, it remains to be seen whether women will travel to rural Nevada for these services. That’s a long cab ride from Vegas in which to change your mind… or sober up.